Submarine Detecting Robot Boat Under Development

When I say the word robot the odds are good that you picture something that looks a little bit like a human. Sure, it might have a boxy torso or tube arms, but the odds are good that you still see something with a pair of arms and a pair of legs. Robots however can take many forms, and today's news is about a robot boat.

DARPA is developing a submarine detecting boat that will be able to run
for months at a time without human intervention and help to protect
large naval ships from foreign attack using a variety of sensors and a
new laser system.The robot, which is still under development, is
projected to be hitting the harbor sometime next year.

The ship, which has been dubbed the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel or ACTUV for short, is designed to help detect submarines under the water. For now the boat has no weapons on board, just a set of laser detectors that are designed to work in concert with a radar and a sonar detector.

The unmanned vessel would run for two to three months without assistance. The project has been funded to the tune of about $58 million by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The folks over at DARPA hope to have the ship ready to get on the waters by the middle of 2015.